Kate Winnebeck New York State Pollution Prevention Institute

1. Today’s environmental manager’s toolbox: product based risk assessment and life cycle assessment Kate Winnebeck New York State Pollution Prevention Institute

2. Evolution of Corporate Environmental Managment

3. Multidisciplinary Teams • Need for CEMs to support corporate functions • Organizations rely on CEMs to • Help define key environmental terms such as “environmentally friendly,”“sustainable,”“non-toxic” • Working knowledge of environmental concepts • Provide up to date knowledge of pending regs, voluntary restrictions • Marketing functions rely on CEMs to ensure ecomarketing is accurate and data is available to backup claims • Product design functions rely on CEMs to incorporate ecodesign concepts into product design decisions

4. Managing Life Cycle Impacts • Product based Risk Assessment: assess potential EHS impacts of a product • Alternatives Assessment: assess potential EHS impacts of multiple products to aid in decision making • Life Cycle Assessment: quantify & identify sources of environmental impact

5. Product Based Risk Assessment • ID & assess potential impacts at each life cycle stage • Results are used to inform the product design team about potential risks associated with the product • Numerical score is typically used to communicate results • Leading private companies are developing their own EHS internal risk assessment tools • SC Johnson Greenlist™ • Walmart GreenWERCS

6. Alternatives Assessment • Assess the EHS risk of multiple products or product components which perform the same function • Risks are prioritized and alternatives are compared in order to prioritize them for implementation • Numerical or relative scoring systems are typically developed to express assessment results • Hazard data displaymethods rely on the user to apply decision methods to data on a range of chemical hazards • Screening/decisionmethods have decision rules built into the model

7. Risk & Alternatives Assessment Winnebeck, KH. An abbreviated alternatives assessment process for product designers: a children’s furniture manufacturing case study, JCleanPro, 19 (2011).

8. Life Cycle Assessment • Define scope & boundaries • Life cycle inventory: quantify inputs and outputs • Impact analysis: inventory is translated to effects • Report results

9. Impact Analysis Human Health Ecosystem Quality Mineral & Fossil Resources Fate analysis Exposure & effect analysis Damage analysis Normalization & weighting

10. LCA Results - Improvement Opportunities • Quantify contribution of individual materials and processes to the life cycle impact • Understand relative contribution of processes and products

11. LCA Results - Product Comparisons Results comparing environmental impacts of multiple products • Used to support marketing claims • Identify impact categories which products differ

12. LCA Results - Product Comparisons Results comparing life cycle stages impact of multiple products • Pinpoint contribution of stages to the life cycle impact • Visualize differences between products

13. Summary

14. Questions? Kate Winnebeck, NYSP2I kmhasp@rit.edu 585.750.8118